Participant subgroups

In addition to our primary low risk population (defined by eligibility criteria), we repeated the sampling and analyses for patients with diabetes mellitus (that is, at moderate cardiovascular risk at baseline) and for patients with previous myocardial infarction or heart failure (that is, at high cardiovascular risk at baseline). In the high risk group, cardiovascular drug use within one year was omitted as an exclusion criterion. To facilitate the interpretation of the relative effect estimates, we also calculated adjusted incidence rate differences according to baseline cardiovascular risk. Finally, we stratified the study population by age (<65, 65-79, or ≥80 years), sex, calendar period (1996-2002, 2003-09, and 2010-16), and diclofenac dose (low dose (<100 mg) v high dose (100 mg) tablets).